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UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
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The  New  Economy 


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AT   LOS  ANGELES 


THE  NEW   ECONOMY 


HOW  TRUSTMAKERS 


Have  Capitalized 
HE  AMERICAN  PEOPLE 


And  Made  Dollars 


WORTH  FIFTY  CENTS 


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ROBERT  FLEMINQ  PUBLISHING  CO. 

POTTER  BUILDING,  NEW  YORK 


All  right*  rcMrved  by  copyright 
May  1904 


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THE    NEW    ECONOMY 


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The  resources  of  the  United  States  are  its  wealth.  The 
wealth  of  the  American  people  is  like  a  loaf  of  bread.  Its 
size  is  limited,  and  every  slice  taken  by  non-producers  for 
nothing  leaves  less  for  all  the  others  who  produce  and 
earn  and  do  something. 

Every  piece  of  plundering  by  which  schemers  obtain  vast 
riches  for  nothing  is  so  much  wrong  done  to  every  member 
of  society,  and  to  the  well-being  of  the  nation,  in  which 
every  American  is  concerned,  whether  he  will  or  not. 
Every  misappropriation  of  the  country's  riches  is  a  disorgan- 
ization  of  human  forces,  whereby  not  only  the  innocent  and 
confiding  are  pillaged,  but  the  workers  and  producers  of 
the  nation  are  made  poorer,  and  put  under  industrial  enslave- 
ment, and  the  plunderers  are  made  more  depraved  and  de- 
graded, although  they  are  enriched. 

When  a  country's  resources  are  small,  its  people  must 
i  struggle  to  live.     When  a  country's   resources  are   large, 
J  like  Russia,  and  when  nearly  all  have  been  grasped  by  the 
f  imperial  family  and  the  nobles,  the  people  must  be  poor,  and 
Jj  must  struggle  to  live.     When  the  country's  resources  are 
\  great  and  rich,  like  the  United  States,  and  nearly  all  have 
been  grasped  by  a  few,  using  bogus  capital  and  charging 
it  as  real  money,  all  Americans  must  face  higher  prices; 
and  millions  must  face  lower  wages,  in  order  to  make  up 
the   difference ;   other   millions   must   retrench   and   econo- 
mize ;  other  millions  must  suffer  privation  and  want ;  and 
children  and  women  must  be  called  in  to  do  the  work  of  the 
men,  because  they  are  cheaper.     The  Russian  peasant,  like 
the  American,  is  bled  at  every  footstep,  but  not  by  Trusts. 
He  is  punished  in  the  vilest  form  by  the  officials  of  the 
Russian  Government.     When  the  officials  purchase  the  sup- 
plies   for  the   Government,   they   obtain   three    roubles   of 


$89259 


money  with  every  rouble  of  purchase,  and  all  must  be  in 
eluded  in  the  bill,  although  only  one  rouble's  worth  is  de- 
livered. This  is  as  debasing  to  the  officials  as  it  is  oppressive 
to  the  Russian  peasants,  who  have  to  make  it  up.  But  it  is 
not  more  vile  or  base  than  the  charging  of  four  dollars  of 
bogus  capital  to  every  dollar  of  real  capital,  as  is  so  often 
done  in  the  United  States  to  grasp  the  country's  resources, 
and  as  was  done  in  the  making  of  the  Steel  Trust  and  the 
other  Trusts.  By  this  atrocious  method  the  American, 
although  living  under  a  Democracy,  is  plundered  more  than 
the  Russian  peasant.  For  this  same  work  Whittaker 
Wright  was  sentenced  in  England  to  seven  years'  penal  serv- 
itude because  the  law  authorities  there  have  not  been  pur- 
chased or  demoralized. 

The  resources  of  a  country  are  of  vital  importance  to  all 
the  people.  They  are  its  wealth.  The  wealth  of  a  country 
consists  of  its  railroads,  industries,  mines,  lands,  buildings, 
farms,  forests,  fisheries,  ships,  etc.  These  are  as  necessary 
for  existence  and  well-being  as  air  to  breath.  When  a 
country's  resources  are  charged  with  debts,  or  when  they 
are  put  in  pawn,  the  people  must  be  deprived  and  harassed, 
in  order  to  provide  the  yearly  charges  for  the  debt,  like 
a  man  who  owes  money,  and  must  provide  the  interest 
regularly,  and  always  be  confroned  with  his  debt.  When 
a  man  is  in  debt  he  is  not  free ;  he  is  more  or  less  the  slave 
of  his  debt.  This  is  not  so  apparent,  but  it  is  equally  true, 
that  when  a  country  is  in  debt  the  people  of  that  country  are 
not  free,  and  all  of  them  are  more  or  less  the  slaves  of  the 
debt.  Because  of  it  the  people  are  poorer;  they  must  work 
more  and  receive  less ;  they  must  spend  less  and  use  less, 
because  some  of  their  money  has  to  be  paid  regularly  for 
the  debt. 

All  the  resources,  or  wealth,  of  the  United  States  have 
been  valued  at  $90,000,000,000.  In  the  year  1900,  71  cents 
of  every  one  of  all  these  dollars  were  in  the  possession  of  a 
few,  and  a  very  large  portion  was  obtained,  not  by  industry, 
or  the  honest  trading  of  equivalents,  whereby  something  was 
done  for  the  good  of  society,  but  by  scheming  jugglers, 
who  have  charged  bogus  capital  stock  and  mortgage  bonds 
as    real    money   upon    the    country's    resources,    and    fixed 


them  under  perpetual  debts,   for  thousands  of  millions  of 
dollars,  and  scampered  off  with  the  proceeds. 

This  atrocious  system,  whereby  thousands  of  millions  of 
dollars  have  been  alienated  for  nothing  from  the  Ameri- 
can people,  was  started  when  railroads  were  first  con- 
structed, when  every  nefarious  method  was  allowed,  and 
often  participated  in,  bv  the  Government.  It  was  developed 
in  the  creation  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company ;  it  was  ampli- 
fied and  perfected  by  Jay  Gould ;  and  now  it  is  an  established 
custom  of  the  country,  reveled  in  by  lawyers,  and  the  per- 
petrators are  now  called  Captains  of  Industry  when  the 
volume  of  the  plunder  is  enormous.  It  is  seen  in  its  most 
matured  form  in  the  charging  of  more  than  a  thousand 
million  dollars  of  bogus  capital  as  real  money,  and  putting 
nearly  all  the  steel  industry  of  the  country  under  its  con- 
trol. 

Capital  must,  to  be  real,  possess  the  power  of  reproduc- 
tion. Capital  is  necessarily  and  entirely  saved  labor,  and 
when  it  is  considered,  this  will  be  seen  to  be  inevitable. 
Therefore,  when  men  print  pieces  of  paper  and  call  them 
capital  stock,  they  are  no  more  capital  than  air  bubbles, 
although  they  are  charged  as  real  money  to  the  country's 
resources,  and  demand  regular  interest,  like  the  worst  of 
debts.  In  consequence  of  more  than  a  thousand  million 
dollars  of  bogus  capital,  as  well  as  excessive  mortgage 
bonds  taken  by  Andrew  Carnegie  and  charged  as  actual 
money  to  the  country's  steel  industry,  higher  and  prohibitive 
prices  were  charged  for  steel  products  and  reduced  wages 
were  paid  to  the  steel  workers,  in  order  to  provide  divi- 
dends for  a  bogus  capital  which  never  existed,  and  provide 
the  interest  for  the  excessive  mortgage  bonds  which  were 
issued,  so  that  the  makers  of  the  bogus  capital  could  create 
the  bogus  capital  stock  and  sell  it,  and  put  the  money  into 
their  own  poskets. 

In  the  year  1900  only  29  cents  of  every  dollar  of  the 
country's  wealth  or  resources  remained  for  91  in  every  100 
of  the  American  people.  Since  the  year  1900  the  same 
means  have  been  used  to  grasp  most  of  the  remaining  29 
cents  of  every  dollar.  Since  1900  the  capital  stock  and 
mortgage  bonds  of  new  and  old  stock  companies,  charged 


as  real  money  to  the  resources  of  the  country,  amount  to 
more  than  20  cents  of  the  29  cents  left  for  the  91  in  every 
100  of  the  population.  Therefore,  when  the  capital  stock 
and  mortgage  bonds  created  since  1900  have  been  matured 
and  made  earners  of  dividends  and  interest  by  higher  prices 
and  lower  wages,  there  will  remain  for  every  90  in  every 
100  of  the  American  population  only  9  cents  of  every  dollar 
of  the  country's  wealth  or  resources,  because  all  besides 
have  been  taken  by  the  ten  others,  and  mostly  by  the  fictitious 
process  of  charging  bogus  capital  as  real  money.  This  is 
the  cause  of  the  "desperate  fight"  in  American  cities,  de- 
scribed by  Bishop  Sheehan,  when  he  urges  the  Irish  people 
to  keep  away  from  the  United  States. 

All  the  evils  of  this  atrocious  and  oppressive  system  can- 
not be  told  upon  printed  pages.  Whenever  an  individual 
worker,  as  well  as  the  nation  as  a  whole,  depend  for  exist- 
ence and  well-being  upon  their  country's  resources,  it  is  of 
the  first  importance  that  they  shall  not  be  in  debt,  but  it  is  of 
prime  necessity  that  their  country's  resources  shall  not  be  in 
debt  by  a  method  so  nefarious  and  detestable  as  creating 
bogus  charges  and  charging  them  as  actual  money.  For 
the  future  of  the  American  people  this  changes  everything 
from  good  unto  evil.  When  prices  are  put  up  to  provide 
dividends,  the  people  must  be  deprived,  and  this  is  an  evil  for 
the  trade  of  the  nation.  When  the  people's  wages  are  re- 
duced to  provide  dividends,  the  squeeze  comes  a  second  time, 
and  the  consumption  of  the  country's  products  is  restrained 
in  doubled  proportions.  By  this  vile  system  another  evil  is 
created.  The  enrichment  of  an  indolent,  luxury-using  class 
of  non-producers  is  accomplished,  and  their  proportion  to  the 
number  of  the  producers  of  the  nation  becomes  more  and 
more  inconvenient  and  pernicious.  In  1900  the  idlers  and 
incompetents  of  the  nation  were  62  in  every  100,  even  when 
we  include  in  the  number  of  workers  5,329,292  children 
and  women  workers.  This  number  of  idlers  and  incompe- 
tents in  every  one  hundred  of  the  population  is  larger  than 
any  other  country  of  the  world.  Were  the  children  and 
women  workers  deducted,  the  idlers  and  incompetents  of  the 
nation  would  be  69  in  every  100,  and  were  the  numbers  who 
live  in  foreign  countries,  often  supported  like  princes  by  the 


American  producers,  placed  among  the  idle  and  incompe- 
tents, the  proportion  of  the  workers  is  reduced  and  becomes 
more  distressing. 

Many  Americans  imagine  that  luxury-users  are  an  ad- 
vantage to  society,  and  that  when  a  man  "blows  in"  ex- 
travagantly for  luxuries  which  never  produce,  he  is  a  bless- 
ing. This  is  a  delusion,  and  the  contrary  is  the  fact.  He 
is  a  destroyer  of  wealth,  and  the  amount  must  be  made  up 
somewhere  by  extra  work  and  extra  sacrifice.  The  recip- 
ients of  the  riotous  spending  are  temporarily  enriched,  but 
there  is  no  reproductive  use,  but  a  waste,  and  the  waste  must 
be  made  up  by  the  others — by  the  earners  and  producers  of 
the  nation.  Whoever  contributes  nothing,  directly  or  in- 
directly, to  the  production  of  wealth,  is  a  consumer  who  does 
not  produce,  a  mere  waster  of  wealth. 

All  consumption  of  unnecessary  luxuries  by  the  idle  or 
industrious  is  non-productive  and  interferes  with  the  pro- 
duction of  necessaries,  and  consequently,  many  of  those 
who  need  the  necessaries  obtain  them  with  greater  difficulty, 
and  often  must  go  without.  No  labor  tends  to  the  enrich- 
ment of  society  or  mankind  which  is  employed  in  producing 
things  for  the  use  of  consumers  who  do  not  produce.  A 
legitimate  capitalist  is  a  producer,  because  he  is  a  factor  in 
the  production.  But  a  bogus  capital  maker,  who  charges  it 
as  real  money — and  it  is  never  made  for  other  purposes — is 
the  worst  of  all  non-producing  consumers,  because  he  pro- 
duces nothing;  he  consumes  extravagantly  and  consumes 
with  other  people's  money.  Were  a  nation  to  consist  of 
non-producing  consumers,  it  would  soon  cease  to  exist. 
Were  half  the  nation  non-producing  consumers,  the  other 
half  would  have  to  provide  for  them  by  carrying  a  burden, 
requiring  extra  work  and  extra  sacrifice.  Were  the  pro- 
ducers of  a  nation  only  30  in  every  100,  and  the  non-pro- 
ducers 70  in  every  100,  excepting  the  women  and  children, 
as  in  the  United  States,  and  were  some  of  them  extravagant 
consumers,  the  encumbering  burden  becomes  oppressive  for 
all  who  do  not  belong  to  the  privileged  class,  and  intolerable 
for  many. 

In  the  number  of  idlers  and  incompetents  of  the  United 
States  in  every  100  of  the  population  we  have  excluded  all 


who  are  occupied  for  gain,  although  many  are  not  directly 
producers.  We  have  included  in  the  number  of  producers 
actors,  artists,  clergymen,  musicians,  lawyers,  barbers, 
nurses,  saloon-keepers,  bankers,  brokers,  soldiers,  sailors, 
hostlers,  messengers,,  sales-people,  stenographers,  teleg- 
raphers, shoeblacks,  officials  and  others. 

The  burden  upon  the  Amt  rican  producer  is  enormous  and 
incomparable.  It  is  shown  by  the  few  workers  in  all  our  in- 
dustries, which  number  only  9  in  every  100  of  the  popula- 
tion. It  is  shown  by  the  value  of  the  products  of  each 
average  industrial  worker  in  the  United  States,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  Census  of  1900,  was  $2,450,  while  that  of  the 
average  industrial  worker  of  England  was  only  $500.  It 
is  shown  in  his  labor-saving  appliances,  in  his  high  speed, 
as  well  as  in  the  quantity  and  value  of  his  output,  and  yet 
the  bogus  capital  and  other  bogus  charges  of  Trusts  are 
treating  him  more  and  more  as  a  human  machine,  and 
displacing  him,  whenever  they  can,  by  children  and  women, 
and  by  inferior  alien  races,  dumped  upon  this  country  with 
a  vicious  impunity. 

Until  all  this  bogus  capital  and  other  such  charges  upon 
the  resources  of  this  country  are  remedied  and  undone,  it 
will  be  an  inferior  country  for  all  who  are  not  rich,  and  an 
intolerable  country  for  all  who  work  and  are  poor. 

The  enormous  debts  upon  the  country's  resources  created 
by  juggling  bogus  charges  into  the  real,  is  not  only  debilitat- 
ing and  oppressive,  but  the  means  used  to  create  them  have 
degraded  government,  have  demoralized  politics,  have  cor- 
rupted youth  and  the  private  life  of  the  nation,  as  well  as 
given  us  a  trade  which  is  good  for  a  few  years  of  each 
decade. 

The  more  the  Trust-makers  can  reduce  the  workers  to  a 
state  of  privation  and  want,  the  more  they  can  grind  the 
people  down  by  higher  prices  and  lower  wages,  the  cheaper 
can  their  votes  be  got.  The  Trust-maker  cares  not  for 
manhood  or  womanhood.  The  more  the  labor-saving  ap- 
pliances can  be  perfected,  the  more  useful  will  be  the  inferior 
races  which  are  being  landed  in  this  country.  The  more 
ignorant  and  gullible  they  are,  the  more  available  will  they 
be  for  corruption  at  election  time.     Whenever  a  man  or 


woman,  a  boy  or  girl,  is  degenerated  in  body  or  brain,  in 
home  life  or  ideals,  by  being  made  a  human  machine  to  pro- 
duce dividends  for  bogus  capital  for  private  enrichment,  they 
necessarily  become  inferior  fathers  and  mothers,  as  well 
as  inferior  American  citizens,  and  their  progeny  must  be 
inferior  Americans. 

Even  were  the  American  people  willing  for  their  country's 
wealth  and  resources  to  remain  under  the  control  of  bogus 
capital,  charged  as  real  money,  for  the  benefit  of  the  few 
and  the  punishment  and  the  privation  of  the  many,  it  would 
be  an  injustice  and  a  crime  to  the  Americans  unborn,  that 
they  and  their  descendants  forever  must  exist  with  shackles 
around  their  necks,  slaving  to  support  an  increasing  bogus 
capital  aristocracy. 

The  vast  and  rich  resources  of  the  great  Republic  have, 
in  large  measure,  been  alienated  from  the  people,  not 
by  giving  equivalents  in  honest  trading,  but  by  diabolical 
pillaging,  by  means  of  financial  juggling  of  capital  stock 
and  mortgage  bonds  into  money,  when  they  were  merely 
charges,  creations  of  the  brain,  dependent  for  realization 
by  squeezing  the  people  by  new  prices;  and  governmental 
authority  has  been  winking,  or  actively  co-operating;  and 
unless  a  remedy  is  applied  without  delay,  the  pawning 
of  all  the  country's  resources  will  be  completed. 

It  is  a  deplorable  fact  that  the  resources  of  every  past 
and  present  Democracy  are  looked  upon  by  the  cunning 
and  avaricious,  as  spoils  which  can  be  secretly  appropri- 
ated. Those  in  power  obtain  power,  not  for  the  better- 
ment of  the  people,  but  for  themselves.  Every  Democ- 
racy appears  deficient  of  vested  immutable  responsibility. 
Men  are  vested  with  a  sacred  trust,  and  they  abuse  it  by 
weakness  or  infidelity.  This  is  illustrated  by  the  signing 
of  the  Elkins  Law  by  President  Roosevelt,  who  must  have 
been  mentally  or  morally  irresponsible,  because  that  law 
was  intended,  and  could  only  be  intended,  to  serve  tTie 
guilty,  at  the  expense  and  suffering  of  the  innocent  and 
honest.  It  is  illustrated  by  the  open  defiance  of  law  by 
the  wealthy  citizens,  without  restraint,  and  by  the  fact 
that  more  than  the  value  of  this  country's  exports  of 
manufactures  for  two  years  was  charged  to  the  country's 


steel  industry,  as  fictitious  capital,  and  the  money  appro- 
priated with  impunity. 

Nothing  will  effectually  deter  the  pillagers  of  the  coun- 
try's resources  by  capital  stock  and  mortgage  bonds 
charged  as  real  money,  except  the  unconditional  extinc- 
tion of  all  of  them,  whenever  made,  by  a  special  law,  which 
will  also  make  the  creation  of  more  of  them  a  criminal 
offence. 

The  absence  of  vested  immutable  authority  in  a  Democ- 
racy was  seen  in  George  Washington's  time.  On  the  28th 
of  November,  1775,  George  Washington  wrote  from  Boston : 

"Such  a  dearth  of  public  spirit,  or  such  a  want  of  virtue, 
such  stock- jobbing,  and  fertility  in  all  the  low  arts,  to 
obtain  advantages  of  one  kind  or  another,  I  never  saw 
before,  and  pray  God's  mercy,  I  may  never  be  witness  to 
again."  On  the  30th  of  December,  1778,  he  wrote  from 
Philadelphia:  Speculation,  peculation,  and  an  insatiable 
thirst  for  riches  seem  to  have  got  the  better  of  every  other 
consideration   and  almost   of  every  other  order   of   men." 

The  foregoing  is  sufficient  proof  that  for  the  good  of 
the  spoilers,  as  well  as  the  well-being  of  the  people,  the 
enforcement  of  law  cannot  be  too  rigorous,  and  ought  to 
be  mandatory,  and  that  when  the  laws  are  indifferently 
applied  the  moral  force  of  the  people  becomes  degraded, 
and  then,  the  public  pillagers  not  only  debase  themselves, 
but  impoverish  and  grind  the  people. 

The  situation  in  the  United  States  is  one  which  every 
righteous  and  reflecting  man  and  woman  will  view  with 
horror.  In  Washington's  time  there  was  not  sufficient 
enforcement  of  law,  and  this  condition  has  been  con- 
tinued until  to-day.  In  consequence,  the  wealth  and  re- 
sources of  the  country  have  been  grasped  by  a  few,  by 
means  of  charging  the  fictitious  as  the  real. 

It  is  true  that  most  of  the  farming  land  of  the  country 
has  been  left  for  the  farmers,  but  with  such  conditions 
that  every  farm  of  the  average  size  of  146  acres,  obtained, 
for  all  its  farm  products,  less  than  $13  per  week  for  the 
year  of  1900,  and  the  average  farm  hand  obtained  less  than 
$65,  for  the  year,  for  his  wages,  or  less  than  43  cents  per 
acre,  although  he  produces  farm  crops  four  times  as  much 

8 


as  the  average  farm  hand  of  Europe.  This  is  because  the 
farmer  and  the  farm  hand  have  been  enslaved  by  pillaging 
jugglery,  and  the  law  authorities  of  the  government  have 
stood  by  and  winked.  When  the  farmer  transports  his 
farm  products,  he  is  confronted  with  charges  for  divi- 
dends for  bogus  capital,  and  in  consequence  his  farm 
products  often  rot  upon  his  farm,  while  the  people  in  cities 
are  starving  for  them.  When  the  farmer  buys  clothing 
and  other  necessities  of  life,  he  obtains  about  fifty  cents' 
worth  for  a  dollar,  because  the  other  cents  are  necessary  to 
support  and  maintain  a  bogus-capital  aristocracy,  which 
neither  toils  nor  spins,  but  consumes  and  wastes  enor- 
mously. Because  of  nearly  everything  in  the  country 
being  charged  with  bogus  capital  as  real  money,  and  in 
order  to  provide  it  with  dividends,  the  farmer  has  so 
little  for  himself,  and  so  little  for  the  average  farm  hand; 
and  when  the  average  farm  hand  spends  his  $64  per  year 
he  obtains  about  $32  worth,  so  that  he  also  can  contrib- 
ute largely  to  the  support  of  the  bogus-captial  aristocracy. 
The  industrial  enslavement  of  the  producers  of  the  na- 
tion does  not  end  with  its  application  to  the  farmers  and 
the  farm  hands.  The  industrial  worker  of  the  United 
States  is  the  foremost  of  all  countries  in  the  quantity  and 
value  of  his  and  her  industrial  production.  The  United 
States  Census  of  1900  states  that  he  produced  five  times 
the  value  of  industrial  products  of  the  industrial  producer 
of  England,  and  yet  the  average  wages  paid  to  the  5,316,- 
000  men,  women  and  children  workers  in  our  industries 
in  1900  were  only,  per  week,  $9.44  to  the  men,  $5.25  to 
the  women,  and  $2.92  to  the  children.  But  this  is  not 
all.  Without  detailing  here  the  disastrous  effects  to  the 
industries  of  the  country,  by  these  under-paid  people  be- 
ing made  small  consumers  of  the  country's  industrial 
products,  the  fact  remains  that  when  the  man  wage- 
earner  receives  $9.44,  he  obtains  only  about  $4.72  worth 
of  the  necessaries  of  life;  when  the  woman  worker  re- 
ceives only  $5.25,  she  obtains  only  $2.63  worth  of  the 
necessaries  of  life,  and  when  the  children  receive  $2.92, 
they  obtain  only  about  $1.46  worth  of  the  necessaries  of 
life.     In  other  words,  these  workers,  who  work   so  long 


and  so  fast  and  produce  so  much  more  than  in  all  other 
countries,  must,  when  they  spend  their  wages,  pay  about 
fifty  cents  of  every  dollar  in  order  to  maintain  and  sup- 
port a  bogus-capital  aristocracy,  the  largest  and  the  most 
extravagant  in  past  or  present  history. 

The  Bible  is  distinguished  for  the  lore  and  the  travail 
of  the  Children  of  Israel.  They  were  in  sad  bondage  in 
Egypt.  There  is  such  a  book  of  bondage  in  the  United 
States.  It  is  the  United  States  Census  of  1900,  when 
read  between  the  lines.  The  facts  are  more  excruciating 
than  any  of  the  bondage  experiences  of  the  Israelites  in 
Egypt.  Gaunt  figures  and  haggard  faces;  under- fed  and 
ill-clothed;  grinding  for  long  hours  at  high  speed  for  a 
miserable  existence,  in  order  to  provide  for  a  bogus-capital 
aristocracy.  Because  the  body  of  the  serf  and  slave  were 
worth  something,  and  were  a  marketable  article,  they  were 
better  treated,  they  were  better  fed,  and  they  were  less 
harassed  about  their  to-day  and  the  uncertainties  of  their 
to-morrow,  than  the  average  wage  earner. 

By  the  few  of  this  country  having  grasped  about  ninety 
cents  of  every  dollar  of  this  country's  wealth  and  re- 
sources, by  means,  mostly,  of  bogus  capital,  charged  as 
real  money,  which  will  be  completed  when  the  recent  cre- 
ations of  bogus  capital  have  matured,  every  ninety  in 
every  hundred  of  the  population  are  left  without  indus- 
trial freedom,  and  exist  in  a  state  of  increasing  industrial 
enslavement,  for  themselves  and  their  descendants  for 
ever,  unless  a  mandate  to  Congress  is  made  in  the  ballot 
box,  to  undo  the  crime. 

From  Introduction  to  "Depraved  Finance." 


10 


It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  every  American  man  and 
woman  to  know  those  conditions  of  their  country  which 
make  life  hard  and  often  unbearable. 

In  the  United  States,  with  its  incomparable  resources, 
with  its  unexampled  labor-saving  appliances  and  modern 
machinery,  with  the  best  of  labor,  working  the  longest  hours 
at  the  highest  speed,  and  thereby  producing  the  most  for 
the  least  of  all  countries,  the  most  natural  question  is :  How 
is  it  that  the  dollar  buys  so  little  ?  How  is  it  that  the  work- 
ers and  producers  of  the  nation  obtain  only  a  struggling  ex- 
istence while  there  is  so  vastly  much  for  those  who  only 
juggle  and  scheme  and  never  produce  or  contribute  to  the 
making  of  wealth  ?  How  is  it  that  the  industrious  are  beset 
with  terrible  uncertainties  of  to-day  and  to-morrow  in  a 
country  of  vast  abundance  and  unusual  means  of  happiness 
and  well-being  for  all,  while  others  are  permitted  to  steal 
millions  of  dollars? 

Every  American  who  seeks  to  know  the  economic  facts 
of  his  country  will  find  food  for  every-day  thought  and  re- 
flection in  the  new  book,  DEPRAVED  FINANCE,  and  how 
since  1895  twenty  of  the  principal  necessaries  of  life  have 
been  increased  in  their  prices  at  wholesale  more  than  58 
cents  on  the  dollar,  as  well  as  many  important  explanations 
and  answers  to  the  following  and  other  questions : 

Why  is  the  best  Bread,  made  of  American  flour,  sold  in 
London,  England,  for  less  than  2.y2  cents,  while  the  same 
Bread  is  sold  in  the  cities  of  the  United  States  for  more  than 
double  ? 

Why  is  the  same  quantity  and  quality  of  Sugar  sold  in 
England  for  100  cents,  which  cannot  be  bought  for  less  than 
174  cents  in  the  United  States? 

Why  is  the  same  refined  Petroleum  now  sold  at  more  than 
8  cents  per  gallon  at  wholesale,  which  in  1893  was  sold  at 
3^4  cents  per  gallon  at  wholesale? 

Why  is  Anthracite  Coal  now  sold  at  wholesale  for  $4.50 
per  ton,  which  in  1879  was  sold  for  $2.50  per  ton? 

Why  can  the  same  quality  and  quantity  of  Coal  be  bought 
at  retail  in  London  for  8  cents,  which  cannot  be  bought  for 
less  than  20  cents  in  Philadelphia,  and  which  costs  more  in 
New  York? 

Why  are  single  rooms,  without  air  or  light  except  by  the 
doorway,  rented  in  New  York  for  $8  per  month,  while  more 
sanitary  and  better  single  rooms  are  rented  in  England  for 
less  than  $4  per  month? 

Why  cannot  the  United  States,  with  its  own  vast  natural 
resources  and  superior  labor  and  machinery,  compete  with 
the  old  machinery  and  inferior  labor,  working  shorter  hours, 


of  England? 


11 


Why  are  Steel  Rails  sold  in  the  United  States  for  $28  per 
ton,  which  cost,  including  $2  per  ton  to  labor,  less  than  $12 
per  ton? 

Why  are  the  people  in  American  cities  compelled  to  pay 
5  cents  for  a  ride  on  an  Electric  car,  and  often  to  stand, 
while  the  same  ride  is  obtained  in  England  for  less  than  2 
cents,  and  often  for  1  cent? 

Why  are  the  people  of  the  United  States  confronted  with 
higher  and  higher  prices,  which  make  the  dollars  buy  less 
and  prohibit  the  use  of  farm  and  industrial  products  for 
home  and  for  export? 

Why  were  the  exports  of  our  Manufactures  in  1902  less 
than  $5  per  head  of  the  population? 

Why  were  the  exports  of  Agricultural  products  $13.60 
per  head  of  the  population  in  1880  and  only  $10.50  per  head 
of  the  population  in  1902? 

Why  has  the  Merchant  Shipping  dwindled  from  92  tons 
in  every  100  tons  of  our  Foreign  trade,  when  there  was  no 
bogus  capital  charged  as  real  money,  to  less  than  9  tons  of 
every  100  tons  of  our  Foreign  trade? 

Why  is  our  country  thus  going  backward  in  the  amount 
of  its  exports,  and  in  the  quantity  of  its  products  which  it 
delivers  for  a  dollar,  while  our  average  farmhand  is  pro- 
ducing four  times  as  much  as  the  average  farmhand  of 
Europe,  and  while  our  average  industrial  worker  is  pro- 
ducing five  times  as  much  as  the  average  industrial  worker 
of  England? 

How  have  ten  persons  in  every  100  of  the  population  cor- 
raled  90  cents  of  every  dollar  of  this  country's  wealth  and 
resources,  mostly  without  giving  any  equivalents  ? 

How  is  it  that  90  in  every  100  of  the  population  have  been 
left  with  only  10  cents  of  every  dollar  of  this  country's 
wealth  and  resources,  while  they  have  done  so  much  to 
create  and  develop  them? 

Why  are  there  only  38  in  every  100  of  our  population  who 
are  workers  for  a  livelihood,  while  there  are  so  many  non- 
producers  living  in  indolence,  extravagance  and  luxury? 

Why  are  the  non-producing  idlers  of  this  country  more  in 
every  100  of  the  population  than  in  every  100  of  the  popu- 
lation of  every  other  country  of  the  world? 

Why  are  the  workers  in  Canada  more  than  50  in  every 
100  of  its  population,  and  why  were  the  total  exports  of 
Canada  in  1902  $80  per  head  of  its  population,  while  the 
total  exports  of  the  United  States  for  1902  less  than  $30 
per  head  of  the  population? 

Why  did  more  than  24,000  of  our  best  farmers  leave  the 
United  States  in  1902  and  settle  in  Caanda? 

Why  were  there  44  in  every  100  of  our  workers  engaged 

12 


in  Agriculture  in  1880  and  only  35  in  every  100  of  our  work- 
ers engaged  in  Agriculture  in  1900? 

Why  are  the  farm  products  rotting  on  the  farms,  while 
hundreds  of  families  in  New  York  are  forced  to  meals  of  only 
coffee  and  bread? 

Why  is  our  Government  like  that  of  Turkey  and  Russia, 
while  the  people  are  blackmailed  and  given  conditions  of 
serfdom  by  the  alienation  of  their  country's  resources? 

Why  were  the  total  capitalizations  of  Great  Britain  in  the 
years  from  1879  to  1902,  with  all  her  financing  of  foreign 
countries  and  her  vast  colonies,  less  than  $910,000,000  and 
less  than  the  bogus  capital  charged  as  real  money  to  the  steel 
plants  of  the  Steel  Trust? 

Why  are  our  best  bishops  viewing  our  immoral  conditions 
with  fear,  and  our  best  ministers  of  religion  speaking  of  our 
moral  degeneracy  with  alarm  ?  Is  not  the  cause  to  be  found 
in  ill-gotten  riches  and  the  abusmg  of  them  in  wanton  in- 
dulgence ? 

Why  are  so  many  American  families  leaving  the  moral  and 
political  wreck  and  the  financial  rottenness,  for  a  more 
wholesome  asylum  in  those  foreign  countries,  where  lives 
of  quietude  and  reflection  are  posssible? 

Why  is  it  only  a  question  of  a  decade  or  two,  unless  a 
remedy  is  applied  to  the  disease,  when  all  Americans,  ex- 
cept those  enjoying  the  proceeds  of  the  plunder,  will  be  the 
abject  serfs  and  dependents  of  a  bogus  capital  aristocracy? 

Why  have  Cardinal  Gibbons  and  Bishops  in  the  United 
States  and  in  Ireland  advised  the  Irish  people  not  to  come  to 
this  country  to  "face  the  desperate  fight  in  American  cities"? 
Are  Irishmen  advised  to  shun  our  country  because  it  is  bar- 
ren or  the  food  is  scarce,  or  the  people  are  not  industrious? 
Do  not  the  Trust  makers  prefer  the  inferior  alien  and  igno- 
rant races,  which  are  being  dumped  here  in  hundreds  of 
thousands,  which  can  be  driven  like  mules  and  put  to  the 
labor-saving  appliances  for  small  wages  ? 

All  these  questions,  and  more,  affecting  the  present  and 
future  lives  of  all  Americans  are  explained  in  detail  in  the 
new  book,  DEPRAVED  FINANCE. 

The  toiler  for  long  hours  at  high  speed  for  dollars  which 
buy  only  50  cents'  worth  of  the  necessaries  of  life  will  find 
the  reason  why  in  DEPRAVED  FINANCE. 

All  tradespeople  struggling  to  exist  because  of  higher 
and  higher  rents  and  prices  for  everything  will  find  why  in 
DEPRAVED  FINANCE. 

Professional  men,  judges  as  well  as  lawyers,  will  find  why 
in  the  midst  of  vast  abundance  and  reduced  costs  of  produc- 
tion prices  for  commodities  have  been  increased  and  made 
prohibitive  for  home  use  and  for  export,  and  why  our  Mer- 

13 


chant  Shipping  has  been  dwarfed ;  why  our  exports  per  head 
of  the  population  are  so  small  and  discreditable,  and  how 
sweetness  and  light,  as  well  as  redemption,  are  still  possible, 
if  the  remedies  of  DEPRAVED  FINANCE  are  adopted. 

Railroad  men  and  Seamen,  Merchants  and  Traders,  Bank- 
ers and  Brokers,  the  Educators  of  Youth  and  the  Ministers 
of  Religion,  all,  whoever  they  may  be,  if  they  are  concerned 
for  the  future  of  their  country  and  the  just  reinstatement  of 
its  resources  for  the  people,  will  discover  the  great  enslaving 
and  demoralizing  forces  of  ill-gotten  wealth  which  are  un- 
dermining the  foundations  of  our  Republic  if  they  will  read 
DEPRAVED  FINANCE. 

Every  woman  who  values  womanhood,  every  mother  who 
cares  for  the  future  of  her  children,  and  every  American  boy 
and  girl  who  can  be  ambitious  for  real  well-being  ought  to 
become  familiar  with  the  live  truths  and  principles  explained 
in  DEPRAVED  FINANCE. 

How  unfortunate  for  the  Great  Republic  that  American 
men  and  women  are  careless  and  indifferent  upon  the  purity 
of  Government  and  the  proper  administration  of  law,  while 
they  are  being  deprived  of  the  common  birthright  of  man- 
kind !  But  both  men  and  women  of  America  must  be 
aroused  or  the  shackles  which  have  been  put  upon  them 
by  a  bogus  capital  aristocracy  will  soon  be  more  intolerable 
than  the  serfdom  on  serf  estates  in  former  times. 


14 


DEPRAVED 
FINANCE 


BY 

ROBERT    FLEMING 


The  people  of  a  Nation  are  poor  when  their  country  is 
barren  of  resources,  for  then,  they  have  only  poor  means 
for  tlieir  existence.  But  the  mass  of  the  people  are  equally 
poor  when  their  country  has  large  resources  of  wealth, 
which  a  few  have  corraled  for  themselves,  by  charging 
bogus  capital  as  real  money. 

Whoever  is  silent  upon  public  chicanery;  or  upon  the 
defects  of  government,  by  which  combination  the  people  are 
being  impoverished,  is  morally  asleep,  or  a  coward;  and 
■whoever  does  not  look  proudly  upon  these  tivo  poles  of 
human  life  is  fit  only  for  serfdom. 

The  proper  object  of  government  used  to  be,  to  get 
tivelve  honest  men  into  a  jury  box,  in  order  to  get  a  rogue 
into  jail.  In  the  United  States,  the  object  of  government  is 
to  get  a  rogue  into  ivealth,  and  tivelve  honest  men  into 
poverty. 


THE  ROBERT  FLEMING  PUBLISHING  CO. 
Potter  Building,   New  York 

Postal  Telegraph  :  Telephone  : 

Flammasia,  N.  Y.  83Z4R  Cortlandt,  N.  Y. 

All  rights  reser-ved 

Copyrighted  May  1 904,  by 
Robert  Fleming  Publishing  Co. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE. 

Introduction    5 

How  Bogus  Capital  Has  Been  Charged  as  Real  Money 

Upon  the  Resources  of  the  Nation 20 

How  the  American  People  and  Their  Country's  Re- 
sources Have  Been  Capitalized  Under  the  Control 
of  Bogus  Capital,  Which  Has  Been  Charged  as 
Real  Money 52 

How  Trust-Makers  Make  High  Prices,  and  Make  Dol- 
lars Worth  Fifty  Cents 78 

Examples  of  Trusts — 

The  Oil  Trust — How  the  Sinews  of  War  Were 

Extracted  from  Oil 139 

The  Copper  Trust — How  Beatitudinal  Windows 

Were  Extracted  from  Copper 148 

The   Steel  Trust — How  the  Plunder  Was  Ex- 
tracted from  Steel   157 

The  Railroad   Trusts — How   Inalienable   Public 

Properties  Have  Become  Private  Estates.  .    179 

The  Remedy  for  Trusts  and  Trust-Makers 205 


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